The overall goal of the proposed conference is to stimulate interest in the development of quality of care knowledge. The target groups are physicians, other health care providers, quality assurance, medical review professionals, and health services researchers. Goals will be achieved by introducing conference participants to statistical and methodological techniques applicable to quality of care evaluation. In prior work by an AMRRC expert panel, practicing physicians and other front-line health care professionals were identified as the group in the greatest need of professional development in quantitative skiffs. Target audience surveys further elaborated on the perceived need. Proposed are three concurrent, one-day "Quality of Care Skills and Capacity Building" institutes. Evaluation of the results of this effort will help expand an understanding of the intellectual and practical constraints involved in building quality of care evaluation capacity among end-users of health care information. Deliverables will begin with an evaluation of similar summer institutes conducted prior to the grant award. This evaluation will inform a ten member Skills and Capacity Building (SCB) Task Force selected and convened prior to the conduct of the proposed fall institutes. Five members of the SCB task force will be AMRRC expert panel members involved in prior work on this topic, and five members will represent relevant national health organizations. The SCB Task Force will: approve a refined evaluation method and make recommendations about the feasibility of objective pre-and post-institute skill measurement; approve subjective evaluation instruments; suggest program content and critically review the structure and format. As these institutes are being piloted for their potential applicability to broader information dissemination efforts, final SCB Task Force recommendations will address the further use of the institute format for imparting statistical and methodological knowledge and applications skills which provide the underpinning of quality of care assessment and research. This initiative is designed to provide guidance to AHCPR on the development of more specific extensive activities to disseminate information to a broad range of physicians. The SCB task force will forward recommendations to AHCPR on how to effectively prepare physicians and other health care professionals for greater involvement in gathering and analyzing data from outcome and evaluation programs.